Protected Areas, Equity, and Livelihoods in the Asia Pacific Region

On Friday April 25, 2008, nearly 100 delegates from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Asia-Pacific Forestry Week in Hanoi joined the parallel session on Protected Areas, Equity and Livelihoods (PAEL), funded by IUCN Economics & Environment and jointly organized by IUCN, Asia Forest Network (AFN) and the Regional Community Forestry Training Center for Asia and Pacific (RECOFTC).

Photo: Charlotte Hicks

The session gave stakeholders and interested parties the opportunity to share perspectives on the current state of Protected Areas (PAs) management in the region and on priority areas for action to better incorporate equity and livelihoods considerations in the establishment and management of PAs.

A number of key issues were raised and discussed including, among others, the opportunities and risks associated with working with the private sector, the effectiveness of participatory governance mechanisms and the context-specific nature of equity.

The session was organised in support of the work of the World Commission on Protected Areas Task Force on PAEL. Participants’ details were collected and added to the mailing list for the Task Force Asia Regional Group and a summary report from the session has been provided to the Task Force to ensure that insights and issues raised at the session are fed into the ongoing development of its workplan in Asia.